Ever since my mate's childhood friend, Molly Fowler, returned, our relationship had been on the brink.

My mate, Isaac Morrison, even left me to save Molly when the fire broke out.

Apparently, no matter how much I sacrificed for him, I was still not more important than his childhood friend.

Or maybe, that was my fault for underestimating their relationship.

***

I immediately woke up from my dream when the fire alarm blared at midnight and intentionally wanted to reach my mate, Isaac Morrison, who was sleeping next to me.

But then I realized that he no longer slept beside me.

I noticed that the bedroom door was open. It seemed he had gone out immediately and left me behind.

Soon, anger and disappointment surged in my head. But I did not have time to think about it, since the smoke had filled the hallway of our school dormitory.

I chose to run out as fast as possible by myself.

To my surprise, I found my mate carrying his childhood friend, Molly Fowler, downstairs. He looked very worried about her condition, as if totally forgot that I was in the dormitory also.

I quickly walked over to him and shouted angrily, "Break up with me right…."

Before I could say the full sentence, Molly had already explained first, "Eloise, please do not misunderstand us. Isaac rushed to save me because I sprained my ankle yesterday in hunting class. Please forgive him."

Then she patted Isaac's shoulder gently and continued, "Apologize to her too, Isaac. Even though you were in a hurry, you should not just leave her like that."

"Sorry," Isaac said shortly.

I was speechless.

Was he a child that had to be taught how to apologize first?

Then why did Isaac only apologize to me after Molly told him to?

How annoying!

I hated the fact that Molly came back, or could be said, she came again to Isaac’s life.

When the fire broke, I was in my second year, while Isaac and Molly were in their third year.

To tell you the truth, Isaac and I had been dating for two years. Because, when I entered the Camcastle Academy, a special school for shifters and witches, I directly knew that Isaac was my mate and so did he.

So, he pursued me for two months and we ended up dating.

However, during my two years of life at the Camcastle, I never knew that we had a student named Molly Fowler.

I had learnt a week ago that she was a talented student in our school, so that since the second year, she got a student exchange opportunity to the Ridge Academy.

Ridge Academy was different from Camcastle since it was a special school for elites and outstanding students only. People also said that you would get a big job opportunity at the Central Ministry in Grimbiens if you graduated from the Ridge.

So, that student exchange opportunity was something that was desired by many shifters and witches.

Then, because Molly had finished her exchange, she returned a week ago to Camcastle to attend her graduation in a few months, because from the beginning she was a student at Camcastle.

After that, I found out about the special relationship between Molly and Isaac, who turned out to be childhood friends.

I certainly envied that truth. After all, I was from the Nightstar Pack and they were from the Silverstreak Pack. That was why somehow I felt like an outsider when I saw Isaac and Molly being together.

Fortunately, the fire that night was not really serious, because the firefighters arrived immediately and the rain fell after that.

Isaac's dorm was also fine, because the cause of the fire was on a different floor. However, since that night, I had never come to Isaac's dorm again and chose to return to my actual dorm.

At Camcastle Academy, all third graders did have their own rooms, especially for Isaac since he was an Alpha candidate. While for 1st and second graders, some shared a room with two or four people.

I myself shared a dorm room with a witch named Nikki Shaw.

Nikki couldn't help ask sadly when she saw me come back to our dorm, "Is my boyfriend not allowed to stay here starting today?"

I sighed and answered in a flat tone, "How about you go to your boyfriend's room, Nikki?"

"Unfortunately, he is not an elite or a third grader, so he shares the dorm with two others.

“Fine, because you are still in a break heart mode, I will accompany you for a while," she stated while hugging me.

I smiled and hugged her too while saying, "Thank you for your consideration."

When I was about to sleep, Nikki happened to open her phone and showed me Molly’s new post on X.

There was a photo of the dorm with a slight Isaac’s shoulder and the caption read, “Thank you for saving me. I did not know what would happen if I did not have you.”

We both felt disgusted with it. Nikki even sneered, “If I was you, I would punch her on the face.”

**

The next morning, when I just went downstairs and was about to go to class, Isaac was already waiting in front of the second year’s dormitory building.

Nikki, who seemed understanding, went first to give us some time alone.

Isaac came over and held my hand, saying, "Eloise, listen, I'm sorry for what happened last night.”

But I did not answer nor nod my head, just kept quiet.

So, he continued, “I know you’re upset with me, but I hope you understand the reason. She could not run on her own last night.

You know, since tomorrow is the weekend, Molly invited us to dinner tonight as a thank you. Will you come?"

Soon, the bell for the first class rang, so I just answered briefly, "Sure, why not?"

Then I let go of his hand and left to go to the class.

I could see Isaac smiling when he shouted, "Okay, I'll pick you up tonight."

At that moment, my wolf, Lucy, teased me in my mind, “It turns out you can’t be upset for so long, huh?”

“Shut up, Lucy. I did it for you. You missed Bernard already, right?” I murmured.

Lucy just kept smiling when hearing Isaac’s wolf name mentioned.

**

When we got to the restaurant near the Academy, Molly had already been waiting inside for a while.

She looked a little surprised when she saw us walk in together.

I noticed the table was also set for two. So, I could not help wondering if Molly only intended to invite Isaac, but he ended up asking me to come with him eventually.

But then, she greeted us, "Hi Isaac, Eloise,"

Then, Isaac nonchalantly signaled the waiter to bring another set of utensils. He also stood up to pull out my chair, a gesture he often made when we dine out.

Lucy suddenly teased in my mind, “Look at her, Eloise. Her face darkened when seeing Isaac act romantic to us. Haha, who she thinks she is.”

I did not answer her, just smirked quietly.

Soon, the table was filled with beautifully arranged dishes.

Since the main menu was steak, Isaac took the initiative to cut the meat first before giving it to me.

Actually, it was nothing new, because Isaac had always been like that.

But maybe it was the first time Molly saw it, so after observing the courtesy, she smiled and asked, "Isaac, could you pass me the salt too?"

Isaac passed it without hesitation.

Molly smiled and said, "Thanks.”

Not long after, she said again while looking at Isaac only, “Oh, this time, I want to specially thank Isaac… and you, Eloise. I was so panicked when the fire happened, fortunately Isaac came and helped me.”

Then, she looked so guilty at me when she continued, “But you must have been really scared during the fire, Eloise.”

My fork paused briefly.

In fact, the fire was brought under control very quickly.

What was more, with the alarm blaring and the corridor filled with smoke, everyone was panicking.

That was terrible to remember.

But then I snapped back to reality and just said, “Not really. I’m a fast runner actually.”

Isaac then continued, “Yeah, you should know it, Molly. Eloise is an outstanding student in her second year.”

“Oh, really? That is good to hear, I hope you can get your opportunity to the Ridge Academy too, Eloise. Talking about it, in Ridge, we….”

It seemed that Molly did not want to lose to me, so I just ate my steak quietly while they were chatting so happily.

If it was just me and Isaac, we would have talked about a lot of things, starting from the future of what Isaac would do after he became Alpha.

Maybe about the days when we would be married when I graduated from the Academy later.

Other little things too, like the color of our house, the contents of the house and how many families we would have later.

But at that dinner, I only listened to Molly show off about how great she was at the Ridge, which actually was my dream too.

I ended up drinking wine in frustration, so without realizing it, I had already drunk quite a few glasses of wine.

Isaac seemed to be aware of it and scolded me, “Eloise, you drank too much.”

I knew Isaac did not like the smell of alcohol on other's breath, but if I did not drink, I thought I would be insane at that time.

“I can handle my wine,” I said shortly.

“No, stop right now!”

Finally, the true nature of an Alpha's candidate came out.

Although Isaac was known to be very romantic and understanding, so many students were jealous of me, saying that I was the luckiest person in the world because I was his mate, but they did not know that Isaac was a dictator.

Everything I did must be according to his wishes.

“Fine, I’ll stop and go back to my dorm,” I replied.

Isaac seemed to be confused with my answer.

At first, he wanted to take me, but I refused and asked him to enjoy their dinner instead of caring about me.

I said, “You guys take your time eating, do not let me spoil your fun.”

After all, I was just a third-wheel between them. So, it was better for me to be gone.

However, I did not expect Isaac would allow me to get back to the dorm alone. That was why, on my way to the dorm, I sighed sadly.

Since the hangover had not completely worn off, I sat down on a bench nearby.

When I opened my eyes again, I felt nostalgic when I saw the cafe in front of me.

It was the cafe where Isaac pursued me when I was just a 1st year.

The cafe was indeed a place for students at the Academy to just hang out or do assignments together.

When we first started dating, we also often spent time hanging out at the cafe.

Everything seemed so lovely that time, but why did I start to feel like I lost my feelings for him at that moment?

What was more, why did Isaac never tell me about Molly before?

As far as I could remember, his friends also never gave any clues about their relationship when Molly was in Grimbiens. Was I really that unimportant to him?

When I was still with my own thoughts, suddenly someone tapped my shoulder, it was Nikki.

"What are you doing here, alone?" she asked.

She was with her boyfriend at that time, so I smiled and said, "Just hang out by myself."

Nikki immediately snorted when she smelled the alcohol on my breath. "Ugh... you're drunk, Eloise. Let me take you to the dorm."

But I directly refused and said, “Nope, I’m fine. Enjoy your date.”

Then, I walked away and went back to the dorm by myself.

Before going to sleep, I opened my phone to find some funny videos to entertain me.

But unlucky me, Molly's post was the first to appear.

In the familiar room, the photo focused on an apple candy with a caption that read, “Apple candy from a special person for my best day.”

That was Isaac’s room.